College Hockey:

OT Winner Sends Maine To Rematch With BU

By Jennie Sullivan • USCHO Arena Reporter • March 23, 2002

WORCESTER, Mass. — Having posted three consecutive sudden-death overtime victories in single-elimination competition over the past two weeks, it appeared to be fate that Harvard took Maine to its fourth straight extra-session match in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

But the magic that carried the Cardiac Crimson from a meager 2-8-1 record in the stretch run of its regular season to its first ECAC Championship since 1994 just could not last forever.

Barely two minutes into the overtime period, Black Bears’ rookie winger John Ronan broke in on Crimson freshman goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris in a two-on-one and beat Grumet-Morris clean with a top shelf shot, giving Maine a 4-3 win and an NCAA quarterfinal berth against Hockey East nemesis Boston University.

Ronan

“We just moved the puck well in transition,” Ronan said. “[Paul] Falco made a nice play to get me the puck, [Ben] Murphy was driving hard to the net. I let it fly to see if Murphy could get a rebound, but it went in.”

The circumstances surrounding the Black Bears’ game-winning goal are a testament to their depth. It is no secret that the Crimson lacks the depth to produce four solid offensive lines, which is why Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni hedged his bets and kept his fourth line on the bench during most of game.

However, Maine Coach Tim Whitehead used the opposite strategy. Whitehead continuously used four lines, and was greatly rewarded when his rookie line produced the goal that sealed the deal for the Black Bears.

“These are 20-minute overtimes,” Whitehead said. “Harvard can go a long time, which was part of the decision to put the freshmen out. The second reason was that they just looked pretty sharp tonight.”

Even more ironic, it was Ronan who served Maine’s two bench minors after being whistled twice for too many men.

“Maine is great on transitions,” said Harvard captain Pete Capouch.

Depth aside, the Crimson surprisingly made a great match for the explosive Maine squad, despite its .500 overall record, which is precisely the reason Harvard advanced once more to an extra period. In fact, at times during the first period of the East Regional matchup, it appeared as if the Crimson had the upper hand.

Once again, Harvard struck first at about the halfway point of the first period to go up, 1-0. Rookie center Tom Cavanagh won the draw, and Tim Pettit snatched the puck off the faceoff and launched a shot from the left circle past veteran Maine netminder Mike Morrison.

Though the Black Bears failed to pot the puck on the transition throughout the first period, it was not for lack of trying. Grumet-Morris practically stood on his head all night and stopped the majority of odd-man rushes against the Crimson, including a pair of spectacular saves early in the first period.

“We have found a major-league collegiate hockey goaltender,” Mazzoleni said. “He was the big difference maker. He definitely has room to improve his game, but he has the will and desire to do so.”

Only four minutes into the game, Bears’ senior center Martin Kariya sent a pass to linemate Niko Dimitrakos, but Grumet-Morris managed to stone the winger, who at that point was looking for his 20th goal of the season. Morris repeated his acrobatics again at 6:35 when junior blueliner Michael Schutte slid the puck to Kariya on another two-on-one rush, and made a diving save to protect the net.

Maine was stymied by Grumet-Morris until gaining its second power play. After Tom Reimann was stoned on the doorstep, his rebound slid out to Dimitrakos, who slammed it home to knot the score at 10:27 of the first period.

The Crimson avoided falling behind 2-1 early in the middle period when an official noticed that Maine winger Chris Heisten had invaded Grumet-Morris’ space just moments before a Black Bears’ blueliner potted a hard shot from the point.

This sequence became even more huge when the Crimson converted a goal of their own just a minute later, when sophomore defenseman Dave McCulloch took a slapshot from the point that appeared to be deflected past Morrison off of a Maine defender, putting Harvard ahead 2-1.

The Crimson managed to control the flow of the game until the second half of the second period, when Maine posted two goals in three minutes to take the lead for the first time.

At 12:08 Heisten rifled a shot past Grumet-Morris that he thought he had gloved, but had missed by only a second.

And at 14:22, a defensive lapse allowed Black Bears junior Robert Liscak to dig the puck out of the boards and fire a pass across the goal mouth to Schutte, who one-timed the puck past Grumet-Morris from the crease to put Maine up 3-2.

The Black Bears turned the jets on in the final period, but a whistle for too many men at 4:26 gave the Crimson its second man-advantage and first power-play goal of the night. Pettit to get around the defense and move toward the net, but lost the handle. Cavanaugh was there to pick up the loose pick and put a wrist shot in short side corner to tie it, 3-3.

Harvard battled Maine for almost another 20 minutes of hockey before succumbing to Ronan’s goal shortly into overtime.

A crowd of 10,000 strong, the largest showing ever for a first-day regional event, witnessed a Maine win that extends the Black Bears’ record to 24-10-7, including 8-1-2 in its last 11 games, The Crimson fall back to .500, finshing the season 15-15-4.

Tomorrow night’s meeting with BU will be the fifth for Maine this season. The Black Bears are 2-1-1 against their rivals this year.

“Both teams know each other, so there won’t be any secrets,” Whitehead said. “You can drop the puck and may the best team win.”

The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the “Flag” link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.

Please also keep “woofing,” taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.

Regional Notebook

Depth

When John Ronan streaked down the ice two minutes into overtime for the winner, he simultaneously highlighted the main difference between Maine and Harvard — depth. Ronan plays on the Black Bears fourth line, a unit that consists of fellow freshmen Paul Falco and Ben Murphy.

Despite a tense, close game, Maine coach Tim Whitehead never shortened his bench, giving the trio their regular shift throughout the final minutes, a strategy that clearly paid off.

“We thought about shortening the bench,” Whitehead said. “First, its a 20-minute overtime and a lot of these games, particulary Harvards games have gone a long time. Secondly, the [fourth line] played pretty well, they looked sharp tonight and we wanted to give them an opportunity to see if they could help our team.”

The overtime winner showed that Maine has weapons all across its lineup.

“We know we have a great team,” said Niko Dimitrakos, a 40-point man who scored his 20th goal of the season Saturday. “Anyone on this team can score. Nobody has 70 or 80 points; were all cogs in the wheel.”

Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni, by contrast, shortened his bench as he has done throughout the playoffs.

“They had their fourth line out ‘X’ amount of times and we didnt do that,” Mazzoleni said. “Adding another class to our team next year will help us immensely as to the overall depth of our program.”

Harvard Overtime

Maine held a significant experience edge over the Crimson in almost every category entering the game except overtime. Harvard reached sudden death in its past three consecutive games on its road to the NCAA tournament. It needed double OT twice, including its thrilling upset over Cornell to capture the ECAC championship.

The Black Bears knew they needed some charm of their own to counter Harvards overtime fortune.

“You can lose at any point in this tournament,” goaltender Mike Morrison said. “In overtime, its one shot. It doesnt matter if its a midget team out there. Call it luck, or maybe good old ‘SW’ [Shawn Walsh] was on our side.”

“We had the same confidence that we had in the first three overtime wins,” said Harvard captain Pete Capouch. “We believed that we would do it again, whether it was our fourth game or our 10th game.”

Special Teams

One of the few weaknesses Maine exhibited during the regular season was its penalty killing. Statistically, the Black Bears were second to New Hampshire in every category except while shorthanded, where it finished fifth. During the Hockey East tournament, Boston University and New Hampshire combined to finish 3-for-6 with the man advantage.

It looked like special teams might haunt Maine in the third period as the Crimson scored on the power play. But the penalty killers redeemed themselves in the game’s final minute as Maine was whistled for its second too many men on the ice penalty with 1:22 left. The Black Bears wiped that out without incident — in fact, winger Gray Shanenberge nearly won the game on a shorthanded rush with two seconds remaining in regulation.

Grumet-Morris Nearly Does It

One of the keys to Harvards playoff run has been the emergence of freshmen Dov Grumet-Morris as a star-caliber goaltender. He platooned with sophomore Will Crothers for most of the year, but earned the starting nod with a shutout of Union in the penultimate weekend of the regular season.

Grumet-Morris was spectacular in this game as well; Maine peppered him with 37 shots, including 15 in the first period, most of them right around his net.

“To play the way he did over the last three weeks of the year in games that could end your season says a lot about him,” Mazzoleni said. “I found out over the last three or four weeks that we have a major-league collegiate goaltender.”

Colin Shields

Maine won Saturday despite not dressing sophomore Colin Shields. Shields, a 5-foot-11-inch, 175-pound winger with 28 goals and 17 assists, had to have a tooth out during the week that subsequently got infected. Shields had an adverse reaction to the medication and could not play. Whitehead said that Shields will either take different medication, or try and play without any in the quarterfinal.